Uganda’s Stellar long distance runner, Joshua Cheptegei has been voted the Uganda Sports Press Association (USPA) Sports Personality for the month of February.
The voting happened at the Imperial Royal Hotel in Kampala during the Association’s monthly meeting.
Joshua’s triumph comes after his impressive performance in Monaco earlier theis year, which saw him break the 5km world record (WR).
Cheptegei crossed the black tape amid cheers, in a time of 12 minutes and 51 seconds, beating the previous record of 13:18 set by Kenyan Rhonex Kipruto in Valencia.
The USPA’s best of February, beat competition from runner Juliet Chekwel, swimmer Kirabo Namutebi and boxer Shadir Musa Bwogi to score 465 points.
Juliet Chekwel who posted a time of 2:13:13 to win the 36th edition of the annual Zurich marathon held in Seville, Spain on Sunday 23rd February 2020, managed to score 300pts to finish 2nd place.
Kirabo Namutebi finished 3rd behind Chekwel with 270pts. She won five medals (2 silver, 2 gold and 1 bronze) in the just concluded CANA Zone IV swimming championships held in Gabrone, Botswana last month.
Uganda’s National Boxing Team (BOMBERS) captain Musa Shadir came 4th with 265pts, five points behind Namutebi.
Musa was the only Ugandan boxer to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan after defeating Ghanaian opponent, Lartey Jessie in the third place Box off on Saturday in Dakar, Senegal.
Bwogi, who won by split decision scoring 3 points out of a possible five became the first boxer who will represent Uganda in the Olympics since Ronald Serugo who participated happened in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.